Holland: Trouble in a Multiculturalist Utopia

FrontPageMagazine ^ | November 30, 2004 | Michael Radu

[snarks_when_bored]

Holland: Trouble in a Multiculturalist Utopia

Michael Radu

FrontPageMagazine.com | November 30, 2004

No one has ever suggested that Dutch filmmaker, columnist and self-described “buffoon” Theo van Gogh, who was murdered this month, was a particularly nice person. His libertine views were ecumenically anti-religious: He had bad words for Jesus, made fun of the Jews sent to Auschwitz, and called Muslims “goat-kissers.” Yet it was not a follower of Pat Robertson or a Hassidic Jew who shot him repeatedly and cut his throat in the center of Amsterdam on November 2, but a fanatical follower of what President Bush and others continue to call, without nuances, a “religion of peace”: Islam.

Holland is a country where drugs, euthanasia, and gay marriage are legal, and prostitutes and the military are unionized—simply put, a real country as close as possible to a liberal, tolerant, multiculturalist utopia on earth. And that, as the Dutch have belatedly discovered and become angry about, is precisely the problem. This belated anger—two years after the equally shocking assassination of gay, environmentalist, and equally libertine populist Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn by an “animal rights” militant claiming to “protect” Muslims—explains the post-van Gogh attacks on Muslim schools and mosques (there have been retaliatory attacks against churches, as well) in a country famous for its strong distaste for argument. Add to that the fact that prior to Fortuyn there had been no political murder in the Netherlands since the 1584 assassination of Wilhelm of Orange, the nation’s founder, and one begins to understand why one murder in Amsterdam may have an even more profound impact on Dutch culture and behavior than 3,000 deaths in America on 9/11.

The Netherlands is by far the most densely populated country in Europe, if not the world. Hence Fortuyn observed that the country was “full.” But even so, it had, until quite recently, a very liberal immigration policy, which applied to former colonial subjects (mostly Surinamese and some Indonesians), but also to others who lacked historic or cultural claims to residence. Among these were Moroccans (some 300,000 out of Holland’s total Muslim population of about 900,000) and Turks. Unlike other European countries, there are few, if any, ethnic/religious ghettos in Holland—no French-style banlieus—and the welfare state works massively to the benefit of immigrants.

In fact, van Gogh’s murderer himself, 26-year-old Mohammed Bouyeri, was on welfare after voluntarily interrupting his studies in informatics. He was born in Holland, and while he spoke excellent Dutch, apparently he knew little Arabic: His “manifesto,” pinned with a knife on van Gogh’s chest, quoted the Dutch translation of the Quran. He enjoyed dual Moroccan and Dutch citizenship. Widely described as intelligent, he apparently became unhinged after 9/11 and more so after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He had a history of petty crime and a dysfunctional family, and was recruited by a radical imam, Mahmud El-Shershaby, a follower of the Tabligh movement, in the De Baarsjes neighborhood, a known center of Islamic radicalism. Following a path already becoming common in Europe—one followed by, among others, Zacharias Moussaoui, the French-born suspected 20th 9/11 terrorist—Bouyeri was also influenced by a high school buddy, Samir Azzouz, a failed would-be martyr arrested in Ukraine in 2002 while en route to Chechnya.

What was most upsetting to the Dutch public and Dutch politicians was the fact that this would-be martyr—Bouyeri expected to be killed by the police and had a rambling suicide note on his person when he was wounded and apprehended—was not a lone lunatic but part of an international terrorist network with links to Spain, Germany, Iraq, and Morocco. Indeed, according to Spanish counterterrorist judge Baltasar Garzón, one of the leaders of Bouyeri’s cell, 36-year-old Moroccan Abdeladim Akoudad, played "a leading role" in the Dutch terrorist organization known as the Hofstad Group. After the plot to attack the Dutch Parliament was uncovered, he provided logistical support for the Dutch cell. Meanwhile, one of Akoudad's contacts, Mouhsen Khaybar, has been active in supporting mujahedeen insurgents in Iraq, and appears to be linked to the infamous leader of the “al Qaeda Organization in Mesopotamia,” al Zarkawi. As for Samir Azzouz, he has been linked to Abdelaziz Benyaich, now jailed in Spain for his role in the Casablanca bombings of May 2003 and the March 11, 2004 Madrid bombings.

So Bouyeri was a little cog in a network covering three continents and some five countries. And that was just the Islamist angle; the shock of van Gogh’s assassination also pushed the Dutch authorities to decide to “discover” a training camp (yes, a “secret” training camp in an overcrowded country) operated by the Marxist/separatist Kurdish Workers Party (PKK, now renamed KONGRA-GEL). As the New York Times recently reported, “Turkey has long complained that the Netherlands and other European countries have been reluctant to crack down on PKK members operating on the Continent. Earlier this week, a Dutch court blocked the extradition of Nuriye Kesbir, a leader of the group, whom Turkey accuses of organizing and taking part in attacks from 1993 to 1995.”

The fallout from the Van Gogh murder continues. The leftist opposition and media are now accusing the center-right government of negligence (forgetting that, until two years ago, and for decades, they themselves were in power). Across most of the political spectrum, demands are being made for a further crackdown on (especially Muslim) immigration, an increase in the intelligence budget, the expulsion of radical imams, and the requirement that all citizens, imams included, learn Dutch. Common sense now seems to have become popular throughout the country.

Some practical steps taken earlier are already beginning to show results. Immigration reforms in the 1990s made it more difficult for settled Moroccan and Turkish men to bring "traditional" brides into the Netherlands by raising the minimum age of entry and requiring newcomers to learn Dutch. As a result, the national asylum centers organization, COA, plans to close 37 shelters due to the sharp drop in asylum applicants. In 2000, some 34,000 people applied for asylum in the Netherlands; in 2001, 25,000; and in 2002, 13,000.

As the Dutch seem now to realize, tolerance for the intolerant is suicide. The post-van Gogh Dutch awakening may be the beginning of a more general awakening in Europe and Canada, because what has suffered is not some “fascistic, right-wing conspiracy” to create a “xenophobic, racist, Islamophobic” state, but a way of life tailored by and for the “progressives.” There are some encouraging signs already, especially in neighboring Germany, where the left-wing government exhibits a new awareness of the problems raised by its 3.5 million Muslims and—a new development—admits that such problems are not the result of German “racism” but may have something to do with the immigrants themselves.

[snarks_when_bored]

Speaks for itself.

[SolutionsOnly]

How many authors are going to rewrite the same story?

[AntiGuv]

Probably not enough to get the message across to a wide audience..

[snarks_when_bored]

Advice for waking up sound sleepers:  shake them repeatedly.

[Blueflag]

"Speaks for itself" ---> res ipsa loquitor ;-)

[ see tagline ]

[backhoe]

Allow me to drop out of Lurking & Linking mode for a moment to interject this:

Islam, The Alleged Religion of Peace® ( TARP )? Click this picture:

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Furthermore, I wrote this a while ago- the passage of time has not caused me to revise a word of it, and I do not say that lightly. I am deadly serious:

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The entire West ( dare I say "the civilized World?" ) is locked in a fight to the death with militant Islam.

There will be no second-place winner, no "third way" solution-- it is March or Die time, folks.

It is Us versus an eighth-century "culture" of plunder & pillage, forced religious "conversions," and the mistreatment of women.

The sooner we face up to this fact realistically and quit dancing around PC talking-point nonsense about diversity and tolerance, the better off we'll all be.

We did not pick this fight- which really has roots in Jimmy Carter's appeasement in 1979 of militants- but we had damned well better see it for what it is, and be prepared to face it and finish it.

I'll put it in raw, personal terms-- I don't want Sharia law visited upon my women, and I don't want a goat-roper "culture" infesting my land.

I don't want their vile, nasty, loathsome weapons of mass destruction loosed upon my fair country, either.

They picked the fight, and now it is up to us to finish it- balls to the wall, hammer and anvil, fire and blood and iron... freedom is never, ever free, and the coin you pay it in is men's lives and tears and blood.

What we saw during Gulf War I was our military doctrine ( high tech ) versus Soviet doctrine ( throw a lot of low tech iron at the problem )-- and we all know how that turned out.

What we have just seen in the 3-Week War is Information-Tech,
( What some are calling it Hyperwarfare... )
or 21st Century warfare versus 20th Century...

What I would suggest, and call your attention to, is the fact that we, and Israel, are capable of waging 21st Century warfare, and the entire Arab world is not.

Proven fact, by recent events.

One more thing- this will be a war where we are all called to be warriors- so I suggest to you that the time has come to get hard, and stay hard... it really is the time for Fire and Blood and Iron...

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[snarks_when_bored]

De taglines non est disputandum.

[FITZ]

26-year-old Mohammed Bouyeri, was on welfare

It figures. Just like here much of the immigration isn't driven by huge unpopulated regions that need filling, it's not driven by a need for workers, it's because Socialist programs attract the losers of the world.

[SolutionsOnly]

Agreed. But there are none so blind as those who will not see.
It's a alarming how quickly after 9/11 so many lasped back into their 9/10 mindset.

[Thebaddog]

If he was working for his food, he wouldn't have had time to be reared by the fanaticals.

[keats5]

"Tolerance for the intolerant is suicide."

Great quote.

[Aquinasfan]

As the Dutch seem now to realize, tolerance for the intolerant is suicide.

We haven't learned this yet.

[Savage Beast]

Gee-- I'm very liberal--perhaps libertine--myself. Many of us are. But to allow a bunch of murderous Muslims to immigrate into the country is just plain stupid.

[FrankR]

",i>Holland: Trouble in a Multiculturalist Utopia..."

What is surprising is that the self-proclaimed "intellectuals" are the dreamers that think a "utopia" can exist. It will never work as long as human nature, and free will exists.

There is a reason why wrens and robins don't share the same nests; and why rabbits stay clear of alligators. A culture is a way of life preferred by a group of people who share common beliefs, values and customs. To mix the cultures on a mass basis usually ends up in a clash of cultures.

Liberals are fanatics - they want to try the same thing over and over, and each time they expect a different result. Basically, they just want their "way", like spoiled children. They have decided what their ideal society should be like, and they are simply going to pitch a fit until they get their way.

Well, like all wise parents, the rest of us should just get a grip on our nerves, and let them scream and wallow until they get tired. Responding to them in any way just provokes them to continue the tantrum.

I remember raising teenagers, when you would talk until blue in the face, but you couldn't get through to them. Sometimes, what you have to do is just step out of the way, and let them run into their own wall...then (sometimes) they figure it out.

Multiculturism is a myth, and urban legend. Sooner or later, one of the cultures will try to dominate the other, and that's when the trouble starts.

Two cats can get along famously, but pick them up and hold them face to face, and chances are they will fight.